Department of Community Medicine, Federal Teaching Hospital, Ido-Ekiti, Nigeria.
Department of Community Medicine, Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria.
PLoS One. 2024 Mar 28;19(3):e0299843. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0299843. eCollection 2024.
Much previous research on exclusive breastfeeding has focused on urban and semi-urban communities, while there is still a paucity of data from rural areas. We assessed the attitude and practice of exclusive breastfeeding and its predictors among mothers attending the under-five welfare clinics in a rural community.
A cross-sectional study was conducted among consecutively recruited 217 mothers attending the three health facilities under-five welfare clinics in Ido-Ekiti, Southwest, Nigeria. Information was collected with a semi-structured interviewer-administered questionnaire adapted from previously published research works. Descriptive and inferential statistics were carried out using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 26.0.
More than half of the mothers, 117(53.9%) were ≥30 years old, and 191(88.0%) were married. Almost all, 216 (99.5%) attended an ante-natal clinic; however, 174(80.2%) delivered in the health facility. The respondent's mean ± SD exclusive breastfeeding attitudinal score was 29.94 ± 2.14 (maximum obtainable score was 36), and the proportion of mothers that practiced exclusive breastfeeding was 40.6%. Married mothers were more likely to practice exclusive breastfeeding than their unmarried counterparts (AOR:6.324, 95%CI:1.809-22.114). The common reasons for not practicing exclusive breastfeeding were work schedule 57(26.3%), cultural beliefs and the need to introduce herbal medicine 32(14.7%), and insufficient breast milk 30(13.8%).
This study revealed a good disposition with a suboptimal practice towards exclusive breastfeeding. Also, being married was a positive predictor of exclusive breastfeeding. Therefore, we recommend policies that will improve exclusive breastfeeding among mothers in rural areas, especially those targeting the unmarried, to achieve the World Health Organization's target.
之前许多关于纯母乳喂养的研究都集中在城市和半城市社区，而农村地区的数据仍然很少。我们评估了在农村社区参加五岁以下儿童福利诊所的母亲对纯母乳喂养的态度和实践及其预测因素。
在尼日利亚西南部伊多-埃基蒂的三个卫生设施下五岁以下儿童福利诊所连续招募了 217 名母亲进行横断面研究。使用改编自先前发表的研究工作的半结构式访谈者管理问卷收集信息。使用 IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows，Version 26.0 进行描述性和推断性统计分析。
超过一半的母亲，117(53.9%)年龄≥30 岁，191(88.0%)已婚。几乎所有的母亲，216(99.5%)都参加了产前诊所；然而，174(80.2%)在卫生机构分娩。受访者的纯母乳喂养态度得分的平均值±标准差为 29.94±2.14（可获得的最高得分为 36），并且实行纯母乳喂养的母亲比例为 40.6%。已婚母亲比未婚母亲更有可能实行纯母乳喂养（AOR：6.324，95%CI：1.809-22.114）。不实行纯母乳喂养的常见原因是工作时间表 57(26.3%)、文化信仰和需要引入草药 32(14.7%)以及母乳不足 30(13.8%)。
这项研究揭示了一种良好的倾向，但实行纯母乳喂养的情况并不理想。此外，已婚是纯母乳喂养的积极预测因素。因此，我们建议制定政策，改善农村地区母亲的纯母乳喂养率，特别是针对未婚母亲，以实现世界卫生组织的目标。
